Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Tokyo Express is a solitaire and two-player simulation of the night naval battles off Guadalcanal. In the solitaire version, you command the US fleet, awaiting the emergence of the Tokyo Express from the darkness. You group your ships into formations, assigning them orders, and select the targets to attack with torpedoes and guns. Simple mechanisms control Japanese maneuvers and target assignments in a realistic manner. You never know when combat will occur until the explosion of torpedo salvos signals the presence of Japanese forces who detected you first and made their surprise attacks. The two-player version modifies the solitaire game and pits players against each other in an exciting recreation of World War II naval combat. Tokyo Express is graduated in complexity to help you learn the rules as you play.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Juno: The Canadian Beach is the first game in the Paul Koenig’s D-Day series of five titles covering the first three nail-biting days (June 6 – 9, 1944) of Allied landings in France to liberate Europe during World War 2. Using fluid and dynamic systems for integrating the fierce combat and rapid movements of the companies and battalions contesting the beaches, cliffs, swamps and bocage bordering the rough North Sea coast, players will find the easy rules to offer rich puzzles and surprising opportunities on the cross-map march to victory.

Can the Canadian 3rd Division find sufficient air, naval, and artillery support to clear Juno Beach and advance inland through the bocage country to the south and link up with the British beaches to the east? Or will the German defenders of the 716th Division react in time, bringing up their anti-tank assets to stop the Canadians on the beaches as they did at Dieppe two years earlier? The German commander, Erwin Rommel, planned to stop the invasion on the beaches… and it nearly happened!Show More...Utah and Omaha: The American Beaches are the second and third games in Paul Koenig’s D-Day series of five titles covering the first three nail-biting days (June 6 – 8, 1944) of Allied landings in France to liberate Europe during World War 2. Using fluid and dynamic systems for integrating the fierce combat and rapid movements of the companies and battalions contesting the beaches, cliffs, swamps and bocage bordering the rough North Sea coast, players will find the easy rules to offer rich puzzles and surprising opportunities on the cross-map march to victory.

On the two western beachheads, the Americans faced problems galore and some of the worst terrain encountered by the Allies. It seemed that Murphy’s Law was in full effect: “Everything that can go wrong will go wrong – and at the worst possible moment.” Yet despite widely scattered air drops, confusion and stiff German resistance, an American victory was won and the beaches secured. However, the cost in lives of this close-fought campaign will see it always remembered as “Bloody Omaha.”

Sword and Gold: The British Beaches are the fourth and fifth games in Paul Koenig’s D-Day series of five titles covering the first three nail-biting days (June 6 - 8, 1944) of Allied landings in France to liberate Europe during World War 2. Using fluid and dynamic systems for integrating the fierce combat and rapid movements of the companies and battalions contesting the beaches, cliffs, swamps and bocage bordering the rough North Sea coast, players will find the easy rules to offer rich puzzles and surprising opportunities on the cross-map march to victory.

Bernard Law Montgomery led the Allied landings on the beaches closest to Germany, with the ambitious goal of moving inland and reaching the vital city of Caen within a day or two (dubbed "Operation Neptune"). But the German 716th Division, support by elements of the 21st Panzer Division, slowed the British advance down during these critical first few days and ultimately kept ‘Monty’ out of Caen until, after Allied offensives in June, July, and August, they cleared the area once and for all.

Complexity: 4 on a 9 scale
Solitaire Suitability: 8 on a 9 scale
Game Scale: Each unit is 1 company to regiment, each hex is 1 kilometer, and each turn is about 4.5 hours.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

This game is based upon Richard Borg's Command and Colors system. The world of BattleLore meshes history and fantasy together - putting players in command of an array of miniature troops on the battlefields of a Medieval Europe Uchronia at the outset of the Hundred Years War.

Drawing on the strengths of Memoir '44, this Days of Wonder game takes the time-tested Command and Colors system to a new level and offers gamers of many backgrounds a chance to fight medieval battles with a dose of epic fantasy.

In this fantastical re-imagining of the Hundred Years War, French and English armies are supplemented with Goblins and Dwarves mercenaries and even some creatures like the Giant Spider and the Earth Elemental! Just as important as the armies you have, though, are the Lore Masters you choose to aid you: Wizards, Clerics, Warriors and Rogues can all aid you with unique powers and spells in ways role-playing gamers will find familiar.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Fortress America, originally part of Milton Bradley's Gamemaster series, depicts an alternate near-future in which all of the world attacks and invades the continental United States. From the west arrives hordes of Asian foes; from the south arrives a union of South American countries through Mexico, and from the east lands come legions of Soviets who have taken over all of Europe. America besieged has to rely on the remaining ground and air forces left in the country along with partisan uprisings to defend mom's apple pie.

Up to four players can play Fortress America, one player being the U.S. and up to three others controlling the invading units from a particular direction. Being a near future scenario, the units in the game include conventional infantry, APCs, hovertanks, helicopters, bombers, US partisan units, and special "Star Wars" laser relay systems that fire from space.Show More...
The game emphasizes combined arms in that players receive a bonus if infantry, mechanized, and air power are all used in a conflict. For the invading countries, all the units they receive for the game are given at the start so they must manage them wisely. The U.S., however, starts with a skeleton defense and builds up throughout the game through a random deck of cards. Further, the U.S. slowly builds up its Star Wars system, so the longer the invaders are delayed, the more powerful the U.S. becomes both conventionally and through its defense system.